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shipping milk?

I am going to be separated from my 8 month old son for 4 weeks. I need to ship milk back to him every week while I'm gone. Has anyone overnighted milk before? Is it better to have it frozen or just refridgerated? Dry ice is a pain to ship with FedEx or UPS so I don't want to mess with it. Any suggestions? Thanks.

Re: shipping milk?

hi there, I think you have posted in the past about traveling without baby? if so, you have helped me ENORMOUSLY just knowing that 'i could do it!'

glad if that is the case and i can help you! i have overnighted milk via fedex. i would NOT bother with dry ice either - sounded like an incredible pain. i never froze, just shipped it cold - i figured breastmilk can be out room temperature for a while if for some reason the gel paks stopped being cold, and then the milk could be used or freezed at home.

i actually used various totes, one from BRUS that was silver-y lined, and one playtex fridge to go. put the milk in with the freezer thingies, and had someone send it priority overnight. milk was always cold on arrival. i think padding everything with newspaper would help, but i never did that. i am going on a trip next week and will have to do this again for my 13 month old

Re: shipping milk?

thank you so much for the info and i'm glad i've helped you in the past! i guess that's what these forums are all about.

sorry you're leaving on another trip. i am too next week that i won't be able to get milk back from most likely (air force trip overseas to who knows where for 15 days) and i'm really sad. we only have enough milk in the freezer to last 11 days.

Re: shipping milk?

If you are going to be sending a weeks worth at one time, you may want to bother with the dry ice. Not to ship, but as a pre-treatment, as it were. Use the dry ice to super chill the milk and ice packs, and you won't have to use as many ice packs. My husband and I got Blue Bell ice cream up to PA from TX this way, because we didn't want to have to pay the airline fee for dry ice. We just super chilled the stuff before hand, and it made it fine.